Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a staple-refill, in which a plurality of sheet-type connected staples are stacked and accommodated, capable of supplying the staples to a stapling machine.
Related Art
Electric stapling machines are disclosed, for example, in JP-A-2004-358977, JP-B2-4042159, JP-A-11-235679 and JP-A-07-148674. Among electric stapling machines, there are known a type of stapling machines which are built in a paper processing device provided adjacent to an image forming apparatus, such as a copying machine or a printing machine. The electric stapling machine includes a motor as a driving source, and sequentially strikes the staples. For example, a staple-refill, in which a plurality of sheet-type connected staples are stacked and accommodated, is mounted in a cartridge detachably provided in a stapling-machine main-body. With the electric stapling machine, if a cartridge incorporated with the staple-refill is mounted in a magazine of a stapling-machine main-body, a lowermost sheet-type connected staple is sequentially fed to a striking section during a stapling operation. The sent-out sheet-type connected staples are sequentially bent into substantially U-shapes from a leading end staple among staples, and then are struck by a driver plate towards sheets of paper to be bound on a clincher.
According to the staple-refill in which the plurality of sheet-type connected staples are stacked and accommodated, the casing is provided with a cover member for closing a receiving portion so as to prevent the sheet-type connected staples from being escaped from the accommodating portion. The cover member is movable to the casing in a staking direction in which the sheet-type connected staples are stacked by engaging a guide boss of the cover member with a guide groove. When the cover member is mounted to the stapling-machine main-body, the cover member is pressed by a push lever.
When the staple-refill is manufactured, the sheet-type connected staples are accommodated in the accommodating portion, and then the cover member is attached to the staple-refill. If strength of a lateral plate or the like of the casing, to which the cover member is attached, is excessively high, the lateral plate of the staple-refill is hard to be bent, so that it is difficult to attach the cover member to the casing by engaging the guide boss to the guide groove. Also, if the lateral plate is formed to have a thin thickness to be easily bent, its molding ability is deteriorated. Moreover, the casing is likely to be broken.